Advance Adds Golf Title

NEW YORK — Meredith Corp., a publisher of home-arts magazines such as Ladies’ Home Journal and Better Homes & Gardens, said it agreed to sell Golf For Women magazine to the Golf Digest Cos., a unit of Advance Publications Inc.

Financial details weren’t disclosed. Meredith (MDP), based in Des Moines, Iowa, Wednesday said the sale is expected to close within seven to 10 days.

In a separate statement, Golf Digest Cos. said it would continue to publish Golf For Women and incorporate features from Golf Digest Woman, a magazine with a circulation of 265,000.

Meredith said Golf For Women has a bimonthly circulation of 400,000. When Meredith purchased the magazine from Brumitt Publishing in 1989, it had a circulation of 200,000.

According to the Publishers Information Bureau, Golf For Women saw first-quarter advertising dollars rise 21% to about $1.83 million from about $1.51 million a year earlier. Still, April has been more challenging. Year-to-date, Golf For Women’s ad revenue has risen 3.1% to nearly $4.3 million from about $4.1 million last year, while ad pages year-to-date have fallen by almost 11%, according to PIB.

In an interview, Meredith magazine group President Jerry Kaplan said a desire to focus on “the home and family area” prompted Meredith to consider selling the magazine. While newspapers and magazines face a volatile advertising climate and declining rates of ad revenue growth, such factors were “not even a consideration,” he said.